Tensas heads to Claiborne in second-round playoff contest

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 9, 2004

ST. JOSEPH, La. &045; The Tensas Academy Chiefs kind of kicked themselves after that 39-7 loss to Claiborne two weeks ago.

So what better way to redeem themselves than to play the Rebels again on their home field. The Chiefs will go there on Friday in the second round of the Class A playoffs after they knocked off WCCA last week.

&uot;I hate to say it really didn’t matter because you always want to win, but it wasn’t our best effort &045; plain and simple,&uot; Tensas head coach Chris Jacobs said. &uot;Hopefully we got some of that doubt out of our heads last week. We’re hoping we made them feel better than they were, but I saw them on film against Newton County. They looked really good.&uot;

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The Chiefs got back on track last week in that win over WCCA, a hard-fought 13-7 decision against a Rams team that may be similar in size to the Rebels. The biggest thing may have been the Chiefs’ defense after losing the turnover battle with three to the Rams’ two.

&uot;We just fought, clawed, scratched and won last week,&uot; Jacobs said. &uot;We’ll have to execute better against this team. Defense is something we’ve been pleased with. The main thing we’ve got to do is stop them. If we score three touchdowns on them, we’ll have done a wonderful job.&uot;

The Rebels (8-3) have a running back tandem that can cause some problems with Dederick Ridley and transfer Claudell Bell. The two may play at any of the skill positions, but Bell put a serious hurt on Newton County last week by scoring all five touchdowns on big plays.

&uot;They dominated us the first time they played us,&uot; Jacobs said. &uot;If we can step and play at their level and hit them, I’ll be a happy coach. I hope they have a hard time getting up for us knowing how bad they beat us last time. We’ll be better coached against them, I hope.&uot;